Cross-dressing in film and television

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Film poster for Glen or Glenda Glen or Glenda.jpg
Film poster for Glen or Glenda

Cross-dressing and drag in film and television has followed a long history of cross-dressing and drag on English stage, and made its appearance in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition from the English music halls when they came to America with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly (Jerry Howard), sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent decades have there been dramatic films which included cross-dressing, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid-1960s. One early exception was Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Murder! , where the murderer is a transvestite who wears particularly frilly dresses and petticoats. Cross-gender acting, on the other hand, refers to actors or actresses portraying a character of the opposite gender.

Contents

Film and video

In Some Like It Hot (1959), two struggling musicians have to dress as women to escape the ire of gangsters. The film is a remake of a 1935 French movie, Fanfare of Love , from the story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan, which was itself remade in 1951 by German director Kurt Hoffmann as Fanfares of Love .

In Blake Edwards's 1982 musical comedy film Victor/Victoria , Victoria Grant, a struggling soprano, is unable to find work but she finds success when she becomes "Count Victor Grazinski", a female impersonator. The film is a remake of Viktor und Viktoria , a German film of 1933.

David Henry Hwang's 1988 play M. Butterfly focuses on a love affair between a French diplomat and a male Beijing opera singer who plays dan , or female, roles.

Dr. Frank 'n' Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show wore nothing but women's clothing the entire film/play.

In The Drew Carey Show , Drew's brother, Steve Carey, is a cross-dresser.

Robin Williams played a divorced father who dressed as a nanny to be with his children in the 1993 comedy Mrs. Doubtfire .

Dame Edna was an elderly drag queen with "wisteria-colored hair" who did international chat shows in the 1990s.

As a central plot element

Movies that feature cross-dressing as a central plot element:

As a non-comedic element

Most of the above films are comedies. Films in which cross-dressing is treated in a more serious manner are relatively rare, although the list does include several dramas and biopics.

As a minor plot element

Many other comedy films include instances of humorous cross-dressing, but do not feature it as a central plot element. Movies in which cross-dressing plays a minor but important role include:

Comedic element

In the documentary Giuliani Time there are excerpts from Rudy Giuliani's appearance in a video, which was shown for the occasion of an Inner Circle press dinner.

The 1936 Polish film Bohaterowie Sybiru has an episode where Polish insurgents exiled to Siberia are partying with Siberian peasants. Two Polish officers make a mock performance of a Polish folk dance, with one of them making a makeshift impersonation of a woman. [4]

There are quite a few adaptations of the 1892 farce Charley's Aunt . In the original, a teenager impersonates his friend's aunt.

Television

Programs that feature drag

Animation, cartoons and anime

See also

Related Research Articles

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Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express oneself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drag queen</span> Entertainer dressed and acting with exaggerated femininity

A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and have been a part of gay culture.

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Drag is a performance of exaggerated femininity, masculinity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. Drag usually involves cross-dressing. A drag queen is someone who performs femininely and a drag king is someone who performs masculinely. Performances often involve comedy, social satire, and at times political commentary. The term may be used as a noun as in the expression in drag or as an adjective as in drag show.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross-gender acting</span> Actors portraying characters of the opposite sex

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This article details the history of cross-dressing, the act of wearing the clothes of the sex or gender one does not identify with.

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Cross-dressing in music and opera refers to musical performers or opera singers portraying a character of the opposite gender. It is parallel to cross-dressing in film and television and draws on a long history of cross-gender acting.

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<i>Reverse X Rebirth</i> Japanese manga series

Reverse X Rebirth is a romantic comedy manga series created by Shinobu Amano and published by Hakusensha in LaLa in 2019–2021. It follows two students at a prestigious all-female school: Hina, an aspiring writer who has a fear of men, and Kaede, a man who disguises himself as a woman to hide from his grandfather, who intends to stop him from becoming an actor.

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